Cotton harvesters often have smooth sheet metal shields across the bottom of their chassis that are commonly referred to as belly shields. These belly shields close off the engine compartment to keep burrs, green bolls, sticks and other debris out. The belly shields also provide a smooth surface to minimize the chance of knocking green bolls off the plants in case the operator decides to do a second pick later to harvest those bolls. These shields are typically held in place by some type of latch. Typically, the latch is a spring pin type or a quarter turn fastener. Alternatively, the sheet metal shields are attached to the chassis with bolts.
Regardless of which type of latch is used, these latches can get filled with dust and debris and become difficult to operate. It is typical that the operator would need to crawl under the machine in order to open the belly shields. Dust and leaf trash can accumulate on top of the shield and can fall down onto the operator when they open the shield. Therefore, some operators may choose to avoid opening belly shields to avoid getting dust and leaf trash on themselves, however accumulated dust and debris can be a potential fire hazard or safety concern. Moreover, built up dust and debris in the machine can lead to poor performance of the machine.
Some latches can protrude down from the underside of the machine and have the potential to knock green bolls off the plants and thereby decreases the number of bolls that can be collected on a subsequent harvest of cotton plants. Other latches have knobs that cover the latches however these knobs can be knocked off by the cotton stalks and the latches can be damaged by the cotton stalks. In some situations, the crop material may accidentally release the latch and allow the belly shield to open during operation which may result in loss or damage to the belly shield and/or the crops. Other times the latches become defective and allow the shields to partially open and become distorted through use of the harvestor.
Thus there is a need for improvement for belly shields.